Platonism, Paganism and Early Christianity

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (Early 6th Century A.D.)

... The
works of Dionysius Areopagites have been controversial ever since Martin
Luther's dismissal of him as plus platonizans quam christianizans, and
particularly since the scholarly labors of Joseph Stiglmayr and Hugo Koch at the
close of the 19th century demonstrated his incontestable fondness for the
thought of Iamblichus of Chalcis and, especially, Proclus Diadochus. The degree
of that fondness and its compatibility or, more often, perceived incompatibility
with Christian faith and the patristic tradition have been the primary focus of
scholarly literature for the past hundred years. ...

Pseudo-Dionysius was an
Armenian monk whose writings were highly recommended by many of the Medieval
popes. His works, including Celestial Hierarchies, On the
Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, Ten Letters and The Divine Names
were collectively referred to in the Middle Ages as the
Corpus
Areopagiticum . In these written works he called himself Dionysius the Areopagite, i.e., the famous
first century A.D., Athenian member of the Areopagus (law court) that the
Apostle Paul converted per Acts 17:34
(Note 1) of the Bible. Today, he is usually referred to as
"Pseudo" Dionysius because it was conclusively shown, as early as the 15th
century, that this man actually lived no earlier than the sixth century A.D. The Florentine humanist
Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) was the first
academic to provide evidence that the author of the Corpus Areopagiticum
could not have been St. Paul's convert. In 1895, two important Roman Catholic scholars,
Hugo Koch (Note 2)
and Joseph Stiglmayr (Note 3)
both working independently of each other, published research papers that showed
beyond a reasonable doubt that Dionysius' claim to be the Areopagite was false.

Notes

1. "A
few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a
member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others" (Acts Chapter 17, Verse 34).